Milking a cow was not something I expected to do on my three-day tour of Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula with the organization Caminos de Osa. And yet, once I realized what the project was all about, it seemed so right.

Caminos de Osa is a rural tourism project designed to help small businesspeople in this remote part of Costa Rica’s southern Pacific get a piece of the lucrative tourism business around world-renowned Corcovado National Park. The 700-square-mile Osa Peninsula is said to house 2.5 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

A mangrove forest on the Sierpe River that borders Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula. Jill Replogle/The Tico Times

But people live there, too. With 80 percent of the peninsula designated as protected land, it can be hard to make a living without compromising the area’s wildlife and their habitat.

That’s where Caminos de Osa comes in. Through the project, small, often family-run tourism entrepreneurs hone their businesses through training and consultations with outside experts.

Now, after two years of preparation, Caminos de Osa is ready for business. It offers three- to five-day tours — Camino de la Selva, Camino del Oro and Camino del Agua — that link together its network of entrepreneurs to give visitors a unique look at the area’s history, culture and natural beauty.